An hour-long audio recording culled from a secret briefing inside Apple recently leaked. Ironically, the briefing focused on Apple's efforts to stop leakers from pushing out internal information to the public, and was called "Stopping Leakers - Keeping Confidential at Apple."
About 100 people attended the said briefing, and three of Apple's Global Security division members headed the presentation: David Rice, global security director; Lee Freedman, worldwide investigations director; and Jenny Hubbert, part of the communications and training team of the division.
How Information Or Components At Apple Leak Outside
The Outline, which obtained the said recording, reports that the audio illustrates how much effort Apple exerts to keep a lid on information about new devices, trying — but failing, certainly — to keep it out of leakers, competitors, and the media's hands. Considering how Apple's Global Security division touts people from the U.S. National Security Agency, the military, and the Secret Service, leakers managing to push information out becomes even more impressive.
That's, of course, a huge problem for Apple, and Rice details the various ways in which Apple workers attempt to steal components, including flushing it down the toilet to collect later in a sewer, or throwing them outright over fences.
"We had 8,000 enclosures stolen a long time ago by women putting it in the underwire of their bra," says Rice, in reference to one of the more bizarre schemes employees had performed previously.
Why Leakers Steal Apple Product Components: It's Mainly For The Money
The leakers arguably have plenty of reasons to comply with anyone requesting that they steal parts, chief of which being the financial gains from doing so. These payments reportedly exceed what workers can earn in a few months. Rice says Apple has seen cases where employees were offered a year's worth of salary for stealing certain components. For the record, Apple workers on the factory line earn about $350 per month, according to a China Labor Watch report in 2016.
Often one of the most precious parts to steal is a product's enclosure or housing. According to Rice, in 2013, Apple needed to purchase back 29,000 enclosures before announcing the iPhone 5C to prevent it from landing into bloggers' hands first.
But Apple has been getting better at preventing workers from stealing parts. Rice notes that in 2016, out of 65 million housings the company had produced, only four were stolen, meaning that for every 16 million housings, only one was stolen.
In fact, Apple has been so successful in preventing leaks in factories overseas that it's now focusing on facilitating the same security measures on its own California headquarters. Rice says that last year became the first time where domestic leaks exceeded foreign ones.
While Apple has been successful in slowing down leaks, some still slip through the cracks. For instance, its forthcoming iPhone 8 has already been leaked to death. When Apple eventually unveils it this fall, it won't be a matter of genuine surprise anymore — but instead, it'll be people confirming whether the leaks were real or not.
Thoughts about Apple workers leaking information or stealing components? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
